Next Monday, former Vice President Mike Pence will release an autobiography entitled So Help Me God.
Today, the Wall Street Journal released an extract outlining the events preceding and subsequent to January 6. Pence describes some of the pressures he faced to seek to alter the election’s result by declining to declare the vote in a few states.
Pence’s Last Days With Trump
Pence’s family embarked on Air Force Two on December 23 to celebrate Christmas with friends. President Trump shared an unusual article dubbed “Operation Pence Card” as he traveled through America.
It implied that if everything else fails, Pence could alter the results of the January 6 election.
Pence says he presented it to his wife, Karen, and rolled his eyes…
On New Year’s Day morning, the telephone rang. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas and other Republicans had filed a complaint requesting that a federal judge proclaim that Pence had “sole power and exclusive authority” to determine whose electoral votes should be counted.
The president stated that he didn’t want to see ‘Pence Opposes Gohmert Suit’ as a story in the morning. Pence told him that he was against it. Why would you reject it, he questioned, if it offers you power? Pence informed him, as he had many times before, that he did not feel the Constitution granted him that authority.
All human beings invent things when they tell stories about their own past lives, and this Mike Pence story about Jan 6 is no different.
Now that he has told it, tho, surely he'll be willing to tell a grand jury?https://t.co/XpIZyZ8LeC
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) November 10, 2022
Attorney John Eastman tried to persuade Pence on January 4 that he might “return the results to the states.” But it became evident that not even Eastman believed it.
He stated that it’s never been examined in court, so he believes it’s a matter of debate.
Pence then turned to the president and asked him if he had heard that his attorney believes he lacks the right to return electoral votes.
Pence Allegedly Pressured
The following day, Pence received a call from the White House informing him that the president’s attorneys wished for him to completely disregard the electors from states wherein Trump had lost votes.
Pence then learned that Eastman had admitted to his own lawyer that any effort to dismiss the electors could have been promptly reversed by the Supreme Court.
In other words, he understood this was a total waste of time despite the fact that he appeared to be following it.
I abhor this self-serving, crab walking piece in the WSJ. There's nothing here that hasn't been said or known, just a refresh of a narrative and a MAACO paint-job on Pence's reputation and electoral chances. Sorry Mike, no can do…https://t.co/fVON1OV56n
— The Duke of Montana (@duke_invictus) November 10, 2022
On January 6, Pence received another contact from the president. Similarly, Pence informed him that he lacked the authority to determine whose electoral votes would be counted.
The conference to verify the vote began a few hours later at 1 p.m. Forty minutes into the meeting, Pence learned through Elizabeth MacDonough, a senatorial parliamentarian, that rioters had entered the premises.
Secret Service followed soon thereafter and instructed Pence to relocate. He promised to stay in a guarded office for the vice president.
However, shortly thereafter, his detail notified him that the protestors were on their way to the Senate.
The Secret Service urged Vice President Pence to leave the premises, but he declined on the basis that rioters seeing his motorcade exiting the Capitol would send an incorrect message.
There’s no doubt that this book is sure to include many more juicy details…
This article appeared in The Patriot Brief and has been published here with permission.
